Claim is not fanciful

The Dugan-Chapman family owned a company WAL Ltd in which shares were held by the late Mr Dugan-Chapman’s executors and his widow the testatrix.

The widow was the sole surviving director and had an outstanding loan of £30 000 from the company.

On the advice of the first defendant solicitor firm the claimants agreed that the loan would be converted into shares to attract business property relief to reduce their future liability to inheritance tax.

However following the death of the widow it was found that business property relief was not available on most of the shares as they had not been held for two years and were not identifiable with other shares which had been held for two years.

The claimants’ appealed to the Special Commissioners but were unsuccessful.

They then commenced proceedings against the...